Thiruvananthapuram: In view of the recent death of a woman as well as two cattle suspected to be after consuming Nerium Oleander flowers and leaves, the Travancore Devaswom Board has decided to avoid the flower from prasadas given to devotees.
Nerium Oleander, known as 'Arali' Malayalam, is widely used for poojas at temples and are often given to devotees along with prasadas.
The Devaswom Board president P S Prasanth told reporters on Thursday that the board decided to ensure that the flower is not given along with prasadas to devotees. The flower will be used for poojas. But in no case it will be included in any prasadas given to devotees in order to avoid any chance of devotees consuming it, he said.
The Travancore Devaswom Board manages around 1,200 temples in the state, including the famed Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.
Soorya Surendran hailing from Haripad in Alappuzha district died after she collapsed in the Kochi international airport while she was about to board a flight to the UK to join a nurse job last week. During treatment she told doctors that she consumed 'Arali' flower and leaf accidentally while talking over the phone. Later she died.
Police said that a chemical examination report of the samples collected from her was still awaited to arrive at a conclusion.
A woman hailing from Thengamam in Pathanamthitta reported that her cow and its calf became sick after having leaves of Nerium Oleander that got mixed up with the grass collected from the neighbouring areas and subsequently died on Friday.
After these incidents there was a steep fall in the demand for Nerium Oleander in the flower markets also.
Botany experts had pointed out that during extreme summer concentration of toxic compounds in flowers and leaves could be comparatively higher as the water contents in plants will be lower. Nerium Oleander contains cardiac glycosides which could affect the heart.
Published 09 May 2024, 11:22 IST